When installing Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE), after clicking Next at the Web Service Setup panel, the following error message is displayed:

 A port error has been detected. Verify the address is valid and the port is available

Symptoms

• The same error message is shown for every port used in the installation wizard.

 Conditions 

• Port is not in use by another application.

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Run the following command: netstat -a -n -b.

4. Look for LISTENING lines for the port.

Here is an example:

TCP 0.0.0.0:8081 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 3628
[IMLogRelayService.exe]

This line shows that the process IMLogRelayService.exe is listening on all available IPs on port 8081.

Here is another example:

 TCP 127.0.0.1:8082 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 3628
[System] 

This line shows an operating system component listening on IP 127.0.0.1 on port 8082.

If there are no lines that show a process listening on an IP (or 0.0.0.0) for the port this condition is met.
 

• Other applications are unable to bind to the ports.

Use netcat tool to try to bind to the ports.

1. Download a copy of netcat from http://www.rodneybeede.com/Compile_Netcat_on_Windows_using_MinGW.html .
2. The zip contains the source code and the executable.  Extract the nc.exe executable.
3. Open a command prompt and run the following command: nc -l -p <portnumber>.  Replace <portnumber> with the number of the port to bind to.

If the following error message is shown then this condition is met:

 Can't grab 0.0.0.0:<portnumber> with bind

The operating system is not allowing applications to bind to ports.

Work with Microsoft to enable the operating system to allow port usage by applications.

Microsoft has identified instances of Winsock corruption. This document from Microsoft resolved the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259.